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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 24 JANUARY 2016 XXII Gaming in Malta Almost eight million ICT specialists employed in the EU in 2014 IN the European Union, nearly eight million persons were employed in 2014 as Information and Communica- tion Technology specialists, representing 3.7% of total employment. Over recent years, both the number and the share of ICT specialists in total employment have continuously increased to better adapt to an increasingly digitalized world. However, almost 40% of enterprises with at least 10 persons employed which recruited or tried to recruit personnel for jobs requiring ICT specialist skills had hard-to-fill vacancies in 2014. This profession is largely made up of men, accounting in 2014 for more than 8 ICT specialists out of 10 em- ployed in the EU (81.9%). It also employed mainly highly educated people, with more than half (56.5%) of ICT specialists in the EU having a tertiary education level. These data come from a report issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, and are used for several EU policies, in particular the Digital Agenda for Europe. The uptake of new information and com- munication technologies has been a significant driver of changes to both production methods and employment patterns. In light of the competitiveness of the European economy and EU employment strategies, policymakers and researchers feel a natural interest in the employ- ment of ICT professionals, a small but strategically important segment of employment. Share of ICT specialists in employment highest in Finland, lowest in Greece In 2014, ICT specialists in the EU were mainly em- ployed in the United Kingdom (1.49 million persons), Germany (1.47 million) and France (0.91 million). These three Member States accounted for almost half of all ICT specialists employed in the EU in 2014. In relative terms, the highest shares in 2014 of ICT specialists in total employment were recorded in Finland (6.7%) and Sweden (6.0%), followed by Luxembourg (5.1%), Es- tonia and the Netherlands (both 5.0%). At the opposite end of the scale, Greece (1.3%), Bulgaria and Lithuania (both 1.9%) and Latvia (2.0%) registered the lowest proportions. Compared with 2011, both the absolute number and the share of ICT specialists in total employment increased in nearly all Member States by 2014, notably in Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Finland, France and Luxembourg. At EU level, the number of ICT specialists rose by almost 1.2 million persons between 2011 and 2014, and their share in total employment grew from 3.2% to 3.7%. Highest share of male ICT specialists in Luxembourg… In 2014, an overwhelming majority (81.9%) of ICT specialists employed in the EU were men. This was the case in every EU Member State, albeit in dif- ferent proportions. The highest shares of male ICT specialists were observed in Luxembourg (89.2%), Cyprus (88.1%), the Nether- lands (87.4%), Portugal (86.4%) and Italy (86.3%), while Bulgaria (68.2%), Estonia (70.4%) and Roma- nia (71.1%) recorded the lowest. The above figures show that women are under- represented among ICT specialists in all EU Member States, most particularly in Cyprus, Portugal, Luxem- bourg, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Denmark and Belgium, a striking contrast with total employment, where the genders are broadly balanced. … of ICT specialists with tertiary education in Spain… In the EU in 2014, more than half (56.5%) of ICT specialists had a tertiary education level. This was also the case in a majority of Member States. The highest proportion was registered in Spain (77.4% of ICT specialists had a tertiary education level in 2014), ahead of Belgium (72.9%), Bulgaria and Cyprus (both 72.3%), Ireland (71.4%), Luxembourg (71.0%) and Lithuania (70.2%). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest proportions of ICT specialists having completed tertiary education were recorded in Italy (31.7%), Malta (38.5%), Slovenia (40.6%), Slovakia (41.8%) and Romania (42.2%). Persons with a tertiary education level had a higher share in 2014 among ICT specialists than in total employment in all EU Member States, notably in Bulgaria, Spain, Croatia, Greece and France. … and of ICT specialists aged less than 35 in Malta, Latvia and Lithuania In 2014, more than 1 ICT specialist out of 3 (37.1%) was aged less than 35 in the EU. Across Member States, more than half of all ICT special- ists employed were aged less than 35 in Malta (59.8%), Latvia (56.3%) and Lithuania (52.0%). By contrast, persons aged less than 35 accounted for fewer than a third of all ICT specialists employed in Italy (27.0%), Denmark (27.7%), Sweden (30.8%), Finland (31.0%) and Luxembourg (32.0%). In 2014, there were proportionally more persons younger than 35 among ICT specialists than in total employment in a majority of Member States, with the only exceptions being Denmark, Sweden, the Neth- erlands, Finland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Ireland. A survey on ICT Usage and e-Commerce among En- terprises employing a minimum of 10 persons in 2015 revealed that 97.8 per cent used computers, while 96.9 per cent also used the internet. Results showed high levels of computer use through- out all enterprise size classes and economic activi- ties. Computer and internet usage rates remained almost unchanged when compared with 2014 albeit for enterprises employing more than 249 persons. In this case 100% usage levels were achieved during the year under review. Results show that enterprises are opting for higher maximum contracted download speeds when choos- ing their internet services: there was a 9.5% increase in the strata of 'at least 30 but less that 100 Mbit/s' bandwidth. In 2015, 81.2 per cent of enterprises had mobile access to the internet, increasing by 1.1 percent- age points over 2014. Enterprises provided a mobile connection to the internet to 36.1 per cent of their workforce. Thus a total of 13,144 employees were capable of connecting remotely to the internet using a connection provided by their employer. This translates into an average of 12 employees per enterprise. Online presence and e-commerce The 2015 survey also showed that 73.5 per cent of surveyed enterprises using the internet also made use of social networks, while 1,149 or 85.7 per cent of enterprises using internet had their own website. The 2015 survey registered a decrease of 1.4 percentage points in enterprises selling online. ICT specialists and cloud computing In 2015, 37.5 per cent more enterprises were making use of cloud computing services when compared to the previous year. This survey also provided evi- dence of an increase in enterprises employing ICT specialists (1.1 percentage points) and an increase in enterprises providing ICT related training to their employees. Businesses opting for better connectivity, faster Internet speeds